Good to Back at West Seattle’s Farmers Market

 

10/4/26 West Seattle Farmers Market

(I still have two more posts planned about my trip to the Bay Area, but I’m interrupting the series here for this USk post, which also includes comments on InkTober.)

Checking my blog, I think the last time I sketched at the West Seattle Farmers Market was all the way back in 2017 during USk Seattle’s weekend pity party! It was fun to get back there with USk again, especially in Sunday afternoon’s beautiful sunshine.

Buskers are always a favorite subject at farmers markets, and this one had plenty to choose from. Although I only caught a man on ukulele and a teenager on saxophone, I saw and heard at least two more musicians elsewhere in the small-ish market. I managed to catch a few dogs, too!

Technical notes: Although I allowed myself a few “usual” sketches to warm up, the outing was a good opportunity to practice using colored brush markers for InkTober. I haven’t talked about InkTober since it began, but I’ve been participating (of course! You knew I would), and I’ve already learned from this year’s chosen medium.

The sketch made on white paper (at right) is a good example of something I learned (or remembered) quickly: The scale of the page size must be appropriate for the scale of the mark-making tool. That sketchbook was the 3 ½-by-5 ½-inch Stillman & Birn Zeta book that I have been trying to use up since the beginning of the year. Since smooth Zeta paper is ideal for use with markers, and since the book has just a little more than 30 pages left, I was hoping InkTober would finally finish off this book in a landscape format that annoys me. I forgot, though, that its page size is just too darn small for bold brush markers. Without any strong shapes to focus on in the flower vendor’s booth, I got seduced into trying to capture small details – and failed miserably. (I’ll try the book again next month during Pencilvember, when both the surface and the size might work well with colored pencils.)

When I switched to a large (8 by 5 ¾ inches) yellow Uglybook, the scale of the brush pens worked much better. I also looked for larger shapes and stayed away from details. (Yes, the old dog can still learn new tricks!)

I do prefer white paper with colored ink rather than yellow, though. While Uglybooks look amazing with pops of opaque acrylic color, transparent markers tend to get muddied unless the paper’s hue serves as the right “underpainting.”

I have another post planned about InkTober soon, but these are the first few days’ lessons. (Now back to my regular programming.)

SF Bay Area, Part 3: Stanford

 

9/25/26 Stanford University campus Quad, where the gorgeous landscaping complements the equally beautiful architecture.

Years ago, I was dazzled by my first walk around Stanford University campus. With family then (one of my brothers and his daughter both graduated from the Palo Alto institution, so they were familiar with it), I didn’t have time to sketch. Recalling the beautiful campus, I made a day trip to Palo Alto alone so that I could see it properly – with my sketchbook.

Although I didn’t tackle sketching more than glimpses of Stanford’s stately architecture – I strategically chose compositions in which trees and foliage obstructed the most intimidating architectural parts – I certainly enjoyed seeing it. Visiting during student orientation week turned out to be especially informative: Wherever I stopped to sketch, I could eavesdrop on multiple tour leaders.

Noted at top right is the oak titmouse that the Merlin app ID'd when I heard an unfamiliar bird call.

I liked the top of Hoover Tower so much that I sketched it three times!

The non-denominational Stanford Memorial Church was built by Leland Stanford's wife Jane after his death. Couples can get married there. (I learned this by eavesdropping on tour guides.)

A highlight of my Stanford visit was following a tip I had learned from Nina the previous day (and it’s a good thing I took notes, because I never would have found it otherwise). In the late afternoon when the day was getting warm, I visited the Papua New Guinea Sculpture Park, which is tucked away among a small, delightfully shady forest. After seeing and sketching the symmetrical, classical architecture of the academic buildings most of the day, I found the organic stone sculptures of animals and figures to be an intriguing contrast.

At left is a black squirrel, many of which I saw in northern California but have never seen in Seattle. The tree with unusual bark turned out to be a cork oak, which grew plentifully around Stanford.

Papua New Guinea sculptures

Stanford campus is a sketcher’s paradise, and the cool, shady Papua New Guinea Sculpture Park is an oasis.

SF Bay Area, Part 2: San Jose

 

9/24/26 Japantown, San Jose

The first half of my Bay Area trip was in San Jose, where family members live. Although I didn’t sketch much while I was visiting with them, I still had time for a long neighborhood walk on my first full day. Staying in an Airbnb apartment in Japantown, I got to see a quiet, walkable part of town that was new to me.

9/24/26 Japantown

These pages are some of my favorites from the trip because I captured a variety of subject matter in a relatively short time. This montage format of small sketches, which I’ve been using at home for the past few years, suits me well during travel, too. When visiting a new place, I prefer to have many thumbnails than to just one or two larger sketches that take longer to make.

9/24/26 Japantown

On one afternoon, I was delighted that three South Bay sketcher friends, Suhita, Nina and Uma, took time out of their busy schedules to meet me for social sketching.

Suhita, Uma and Nina

A few blocks from my Airbnb was the Japanese American Museum, which includes this authentically reproduced barrack from a WW II incarceration camp. Extremely moved to see the kind of space that my family endured for years, I really wanted to sketch this exhibit, but it was too dark from every angle. A single 10 watt bulb illuminated the space shared by 8 people. Sheets hung on ropes provided "privacy."

Meeting up with sketcher friends is one of the best parts of travel!

You know you're in California when you see magnificent palms on every corner.

SF Bay Area, Part 1: Travel Journal

 

9/23/26 On the light rail to the airport

The San Francisco Bay Area offers me an ideal mix of family, friends, and fantastic sketching opportunities, yet I rarely visit (the last time was in 2018 when we were on our way to Yosemite). I just got back from eight days there, and I plan to visit more regularly in the future. Late September seems to be an ideal time to visit, weather-wise. While Seattle is definitely turning toward fall, the Bay Area was a lovely extension of summer.

9/23/26 Lunch while waiting for my flight at SEA. Later in the day, I wrote private thoughts at the bottom of the pages that I cropped out here. It's an easy solution to sharing some parts of a journal page without sharing everything.

Although I have several posts planned organized by city, I’m going to begin with select pages from my travel journal. A recent review of my fitness-walk sketches disappointed me because I haven’t been writing as much in my sketch journal as I have wanted to. With that in mind, I made an effort to write alongside my sketches during my week away, which wasn’t difficult, since I do tend to write more when I’m traveling. I didn’t bring along my long-form written journal, so in the evenings, I often wrote a couple of pages of impressions and thoughts in the travel journal. My daily-carry Uglybook functioned exactly as my travel journals have in the past.

9/23/26 At lower left is my habit tracker of step count, hours walked, and walking duration, which are things I usually record in my long-form written journal. 

I also consciously used these eight days as a “dry run” for longer trips I hope to make in 2027. I’m fairly set on media choices, but the question is always paper. Through 2019 (the last time I traveled internationally), I was binding travel sketchbooks myself, but I’ve decided not to do that going forward. So, the question now is, How many and which sketchbooks would I want to bring for, say, a 12- or 15-day trip? I’m sure I’ll be muttering and musing over that question for many months to come, so I won’t start here, but I’ll just say that this short-ish trip was helpful in clarifying my needs. Regardless of location or duration, I doubt my sketching approach would change much.

9/25/26 As always, sushi was my favorite food to draw! And I ate a lot of it (all fantastic) while staying in San Jose's Japantown neighborhood.

9/25/26 Caltrain rider. One issue I have with including lengthy writing is that I tend to use whatever pen I made that sketch with, which is often a brush pen. It takes much longer to write legibly with a brush pen than a marker with a fine tip (such as used below). I'd rather not use a brush pen, but usually I forget to switch pens.

9/25/26 Palo Alto

9/27/26 Berkeley playground

9/30/26 Everything I ate on this day except breakfast in my Airbnb

10/1/26 Rider on my light rail ride home. I like how this last page and the first page in my journal (top of post) are both about how I relate to other light rail passengers. They unintentionally form nice book ends for the rest of my trip.

Not Many Notes Here, Either

 

8/23/26 Green Lake Village

8/23/26 Green Lake

Like the commuter portraits I talked about a couple of days ago, I’m frowning at the lack of writing with my fitness-walk sketches, too. Sometimes making a sketch will prompt thoughts that I’d like to write about, but I save them for my written journal (which I work on mostly in the evening). Standing on the sidewalk is not exactly conducive to long-form writing, but maybe I can learn to be less verbose – boil down my thoughts to a couple of sentences.

8/27/26 Green Lake

8/31/26 These idiotic geese have the bad habit of 
wandering out into the street, but instead of crossing to the other side, they just meander around slowly, stopping traffic in both directions.

I tend to write a bit more in my sketch journal when I travel because I’m using it as a travel journal, too. As you read this, I am just getting back from a week away in which I set myself the goal of writing more in my sketch journal (and not at all in my written journal, which I didn’t even bring). I’ll probably eventually talk about that process.

9/7/26 Maple Leaf Park

9/15/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

I didn’t forget that today is Day 1 of InkTober! Although I have a plan, as I’m writing this more than a week in the past, my future self doesn’t know yet how successful I was at starting InkTober on a travel day. I may begin tomorrow. Will report in soon.

9/22/26 I remember when this old snag standing in Maple Leaf Park was still a tree. I don't think I ever
sketched it then. I thought it was time to finally appreciate it.

Not Enough Notes

7/14/26

6/20/26

Since I rarely ride the light rail or buses for anything but USk outings, sketch play dates, and other socializing, it’s fun to recall where I was going and who I was meeting with when I sketched these fellow commuters. (This is just a selection from my busy summer.)

7/25/26

8/9/26

Sometimes I make notes about the day on the bottom of the page (which I sometimes clip off and don’t share), but not often enough. I want my sketch journal to be more of a “journal” to balance the “sketching.” I’m going to make an effort to write more on the page.

9/11/26

9/13/26

There’s irony in that last statement. One of the main reasons I was so motivated to start a sketch journal in the first place was that I already had a lifelong journal writing practice; I wanted a daily journal process that would put more emphasis on sketching. Now I want more balance between the two.

9/11/26 During a longer rider than usual all the way to the south end of the light rail line, I had more time to capture a larger scene. Everyone near me had bags, airport-bound, so I knew they would be on board almost as long as I would be.

Leaf-Peeping Season is On!

 

9/21/26 Sugar maples, Crown Hill neighborhood

After Mary Jean and I sketched the enormous chestnut tree in Fremont, we went west to the Crown Hill neighborhood, where she knew that the sugar maples on North 80^th Street were near peak. A noisy arterial, 80^th is not a pleasant place to sketch, but it’s worth it to see these fiery beauties. They’re the same maples that Kim and I had sketched last year, though that was several weeks later and nearly past their peak.

As we shared sketches with each other, we officially declared it: Leaf-peeping season is on!